Philo of Alexandria. Jean Danielou
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Philo’s expression seems to sum up this whole part of the legislation.
The program of Essene moral teaching that Philo presents includes “piety, holiness, justice, domestic (οἰκονομία) and civic (πολιτεία) conduct, knowledge of what is truly good, or evil, or indifferent, and how to choose what they should and avoid the opposite, taking for their defining standards these three, love of God, love of virtue, love of men” (Quod Probus, 83).38 This greatly resembles the program proposed at the beginning of the Manual of Discipline. One must “practice truth, justice, and law” (I, 5). Good actions and bad actions are described (I, 3). One must withdraw from all evil and adhere to every good work (I, 4–5). The program consists of seeking God (I, 1), practicing the precepts (I, 7), and loving all the Sons of Light (I, 9). In both cases, we have seen this elementary catechesis based on the theme of the two ways and the two commandments that will persist in primitive Christian catechesis and that seems typically Essene.
The details of the precepts present striking points of contact: the state of purity in relation to other people is to be noted (Quod Probus, 84; Manual of Discipline, VI, 16), which is one of the clearest characteristics and emphasizes the separation from the world. The description of common life is especially important. No one has anything, house, storeroom, money, or clothing, which is not common (Quod Probus, 85–86), Now, that is one of the most distinguishing characteristics of Qumran and prevents us from finding, as del Medico does, a description of the Jewish community in general in the portrait of the Essenes (Manual of Discipline, VI, 19–20). The Manual of Discipline specifies that goods and wages are to be handed over to the treasurer (VI, 19–20). This is another of Philo’s reports in the Apology in the exact terms: “Each branch when it has received the wages of these so different occupations gives it to some person who has been appointed [ταμίᾳ]” (Pro Iudaeis, XI, 10).39
It will be noted that on this occasion Philo observes that the Essenes dwell together “in communities” (κατὰ θιάσους) (Quod Probus, 85).40 The word also appears in the Apology: “They live together formed into clubs, bands of comradeship with common meals [κατὰ θιάσους ἑταιρίας καὶ συσσίτια] (Pro Judaeis, XI, 5).41 The Qumran manuscripts again allude to these meals in common (Manual of Discipline, VI, 1–4). These communities are likewise designated by the term ὅμιλος (Apology XI, 1).42 Ralph Marcus shows that these terms, which neither Philo nor Josephus employ for other Jewish sects, seem to translate the Hebrew yahad, which frequently appears in the Dead Sea Scrolls to indicate the Qumran community.43 The terms seem to demonstrate that the Essenes had a completely special character, precisely this very close common life, which was that of the Qumran community.
Two frequently misunderstood expressions of Philo also seem to refer to this common life. Philo explains that the Essenes are taught civil life (πολιτεἰα) and economic life (οἰκονομία) (Quod Probus, 83). Lagrange translates this as “family life and civil life.”44 We cannot see what the first translation corresponds to, because Philo does not speak of marriage among the Essenes. In reality, these two phrases, which are part of a brief summary that Philo gives of the Manual of Discipline, seem to us to designate two of its parts. Πολίτεια is the totality of the rules concerning the relations of the members of the community among themselves, and οἰκονομία is the rules concerning the use of material goods. We could translate them by “rules of obedience and poverty.”
Philo’s report ends with a final detail whose exact equivalent is found again in the Manual. Philo notes the care that is taken with the sick and the aged who are under the community’s charge. Now, the Damascus Document contains identical prescriptions. A tax is deduced from salaries to be paid to the common fund (XIV, 13). The goal is to come to the assistance “of the poor and the indigent,” of the “elderly,” of those affected with leprosy, of “those who have been captives in a foreign land” (XIV, 14–16). Here too the specificity of the report in Philo is such that it practically excludes doubt. Again it emphasizes the group’s communal character described both by Philo and the manuscripts.
Such are the data in Quod Probus. They attest to Philo’s exact knowledge of the Qumran community. The information in the Apology for the Jews mostly repeats them, adding particular details like the distinction between winter and summer garments (XI, 12), or the indication of raising bees and tending flocks among practical trades (XI, 8). But on one point it adds a very important characteristic: the explicit affirmation that the Essenes do not marry (XI, 14). The fact that there are no children or adolescents among them can be linked to that. The point is quite unusual. Josephus and Pliny will both observe it. Now, according to the Damascus Document, the Zadokites have wives and children (V, 6–7; VII, 6–9). The Manual of Discipline says nothing about the matter. Investigations carried out at the Qumran cemetery certainly seem to show that women are buried there.
This leads us to observe that, besides indisputable overall similarities, there are notable differences in the description of the community between Philo and the Qumran manuscripts. They are of two kinds and come under two explanations. On the one hand, we have seen that Philo’s Quod Probus presents several characteristics that the manuscripts do not, ones that highlight the rigor of the communal regime: prohibition of all oaths (84) and prohibition of slaves. The Apology adds celibacy and exclusion of adolescents and children. Now these features contradict what the Damascus Document says permitting oaths (IX, 8–16; XVI, 6–12), mentioning slaves, talking about children, and showing us married people. Still it must be noted that the Manual of Discipline says nothing of slaves, celibacy, oaths, or children.
That implies differences of time period and orientation. If, as seems plausible, the Manual of Discipline shows us the earliest state of the community, we can say that the community subsequently split into two movements. The larger one is that which the Damascus Document and Josephus mention. The other, more strict, is what Philo discusses in Quod Probus, but it still does not seem to acknowledge an obligation to celibacy when Philo was writing his work. By contrast, it existed after 41 when he wrote the Apology for the Jews. Josephus knew this last state. Therefore, it would seem that celibacy appeared late.
This poses the question of knowing what influenced its appearance. If we recall that we are dealing with a period around 40, and if we wonder what influences might give rise to the ideal of virginity in Palestine at that date, it certainly seems that there could only be one, Christianity. That would lead us to think that in Palestine there were mutual influences between Christianity and Essenism at this date.45 From that might follow the odd consequence that Eusebius was not completely wrong when he believed he recognized Christians in the Essenes described by Philo and Josephus. Indeed, those whom the former’s Apology for the Jews and the latter’s work describe might already have undergone Christian influence. But in this period, Christians and Essenes must not have been so easy to distinguish in outward appearance to a stranger to Palestine.
We can ask whether two other characteristics that differentiate the Apology for the Jews from Quod Probus may likewise refer rather to Christians than to Essenes so that in the Apology we would have a testimony about what Philo tried to say at the end of his life about the development of Christianity in Palestine, which from a distance he confused with Essenism. Quod Probus told us that the Essenes fled cities and lived in villages (κωμηδὀν) and that they numbered 4000 in all. Now the Apology for the Jews shows them as “dwelling in many cities of Judea and also many villages where they form numerous large communities (πολυανθρώπους)” (XI, 1). Living in cities is absolutely opposed to Essene practice. By contrast it describes Christians. Moreover, major growth of the Essenes in this period is not very likely. Their community in fact was pulled in two directions. The Zealots, on the one hand, sweep them along in the revolt against Rome, as Josephus testifies: a sign of this can be seen in the Apology’s no longer mentioning the pacifism to which Quod Probus bears witness. On the other hand, they were drawn into the Christian orbit, if we are to believe with Cullman that the numerous priest converts mentioned in Acts 6: 7 are Zadokites.
The other characteristic that separates the Apology for the Jews from Quod Probus is the affirmation that entry into the community is not by birth but free choice (Pro Iudaeis, XI, 2). That is why he adds: “Thus no Essene is a mere child nor even a